Caching Out (12 page)

At
first, Gavin thought she meant him, but then he saw the doll in her arms. Squatting
so that he was eye level with her, Gavin grinned, “That’s right, Mama.” Pointing
to the doll he said, “That’s your baby.” He smiled up at her and said, “I’ve
got work to do, Mama, but I’ll be back soon to see you and the baby.” Gavin then
kissed his mother on the forehead, ignoring that she flinched at the touch of
his lips.

CHAPTER 18

Tate
pulled into the driveway just after seven in the evening, grabbing his mail on
the way in. He sorted through the envelopes as he walked.
Junk mail.
Well,
I guess that’s better than bills.
Pushing the play button on his answering
machine, he listened as some man tried to sell him insurance, and then deleted
it. The next message boomed Mayor Hooper’s voice into the room leaving his name
and number but no message.

Delete.

Tate
dropped the junk mail into a small, round plastic trash can then walked through
the living room and into his small kitchen. He stood at the open refrigerator
door, and sighed before pulling out a package of ham and the mayo.
Should’ve
stopped at the diner or called Mom. Guess a sandwich will have to do. 
Pulling
bread out of a plastic bag, Tate brought it to his nose and sniffed before
shrugging and spreading the mayo on. He slapped the sandwich together and put
it on a paper plate from a stack near the sink. Tate grabbed a beer as he
returned the ham to the fridge. Sliding the patio door open, he took a seat at
a rough-hewn pine table on the deck. His feast, if you could call it that, in
front of him.

He
closed his eyes and soaked in the peaceful silence of his back yard, then
wondered where the killer was tonight. Was he planning another kill, or would
Tate’s phone ring tonight with another gruesome discovery?

“God,
I hope not,” he whispered. He finished the sandwich and grabbed another beer. Tate
snatched his cell from the counter on his way back outside.
No sense putting
it off any longer, Echo.
  Punching in ten very familiar numbers Tate waited
while the call connected.

Emma
answered on the second ring. “Tate?” 

He
still loved the almost breathless way that she said his name. He smiled, remembering
when he could make her whisper more than just his name in that same soft and
husky voice. “Yeah, Em, it’s me. How you been?”

“I’m
fine. Is everything okay?  Everyone okay? I mean your daddy--” a pause. “Karlee?” 
 

“Everyone
is fine, Em. That’s not why I’m calling.” 

She
sighed, “If everyone is fine, Tate, then why are you calling me?  I haven’t
heard from you in four months and after the way our last call ended, I wasn’t
sure if I’d ever hear from you again unless someone died.”

Ah,
she hadn’t forgotten the last call and Tate wondered if he’d made the right
choice to call her now. Before he could stop himself, Tate asked, “You still
seeing that guy Jay or Ray or whatever the hell his name is?” Tate heard Emma
suck in a sharp breath and blow it out. He knew he’d said the wrong thing, but
when it came to Emma, he just couldn’t seem to stop himself. He’d always
thought that someday, well, that they’d manage to work it out. She was his.  

            “Jay,
his name is Jay and no I’m not still seeing him. But Tate, if I want to see
someone, then I can do that. We
are
divorced. Remember?”

“Em,
I’m sorry. I know we’re divorced. Hell, I remember it every single day when I
wake up in an empty bed. Look, I didn’t call to fight with you. I have a problem
that I want to run past you; a killer problem.”

“So
what’s going on?” Emma asked.

Without
holding back any details, Tate spent the next half hour relaying the scant
information that he had on the two murders.

Emma
listened without interrupting and when Tate finished, she said, “Sounds like
you have a serial on your hands Tate. So are you going to make a formal request
for assistance from the Bureau?”

“No,
I’m not putting in a formal request just yet. Pine Ridge expects me to handle
this and if I don’t, well let’s just say that it will further undermine their
confidence in my abilities as chief of police here and right now the town is
running  scared as it is.”

“Hmm…I
see. So what kind of help do you want from me?”

“I
was actually hoping that you would do some off the radar research for me. My resources
are a little more limited than yours.”

 Emma
laughed. “I’ll do a little database creeping and give you a call in a day or
two.”

God,
he’d missed the way she laughed. Rich and throaty, her laugh was as sexy as hell.
Just like the rest of her.

Tate
disconnected the call and was surprised when it immediately rang. “Echo here.”

“Tate,
this is Davis over at the County lab. We got that report you wanted on Parker’s
computer and I was wondering if you wanted me to fax it or email it to you tonight?
Pretty standard stuff from my perspective, nothing unusual or suspicious.”

Tate
elbowed the patio door open, and went into the kitchen to deposit his empty
plate as he talked, “That would be great. Email the report to me and then send
a hard copy to my office please. I’d like to review the findings as soon as
possible.” 

Tate
went down the hall to his home office and booted up his computer.
Might as
well call Mayor Hooper while I wait.

Within
minutes, the mayor’s voice boomed on the line, “It’s about damn time you
returned my call Echo.”

“Sorry
about that, Mayor, but despite public opinion, I don’t spend all my time at my
desk. I do have a several leads we are actively pursuing.”

“Yeah,
well, I need to know what’s going on. Every damn time I step out of my office I
have some concerned citizen stopping me to find out when I’m going to pull you
and put a competent chief in your office or telling me that if I don’t do
something about these murders that I won’t get their vote. It’s hard to support
your department or your position when I don’t know what the hell’s going on.”

Bringing
the Mayor up to speed on the geocaching angle, Tate told the mayor that he had
a buddy with the FBI checking serial killer profiles in databases that normal
police departments didn’t have access to. “I don’t want that information shared,
so please keep just between the two of us,” he said.

Hearing
that Tate still had friends with the FBI seamed to pacify the Mayor and they
hung up on slightly better terms.

Tate
clicked the mail icon on his computer, and opened the new file that Davis had
just sent. Scrolling through the list of files on Saralyn’s computer, Tate
agreed that it was pretty standard stuff for a young woman. Moving to a roster
of her e-mails for the last sixty days, he really wasn’t surprised there wasn’t
anything incriminating or suspicious there either. Tate quickly scanned a
listing of recently accessed websites and found what he was looking for.

“Bingo,”
he said and printed the list out. He grabbed the pages off the printer and
rummaged through the desk drawer until he found a blue highlighter.  Tate
scanned the list pausing to highlight each entry for the geocaching website. It
was the same one the Babcock’s used. Once all the entries were noted, he called
Martin’s cell.

“Sheriff
Crawley,” Martin said.

Sliding
his chair back from the desk, Tate propped his feet up on one corner, “It’s me.
I got the reports back on Parker’s computer tonight and thought you’d want to
know.”

 “So
what’d you find?  Anything there going to help us catch this guy?”

“Not
sure, but she did access the same geocaching website as the Babcocks regularly.
Twenty-three entries in the last sixty days. Reva didn’t act like they went
caching that many times. Has me wondering if Saralyn went with anyone else. Of
course, if you think about the fact that she went on the site once to locate
caches and then again to log the finds, it’s only about twelve trips, but that
is still quite a bit.”

“Yep,”
Martin agreed. “I’ll stop by the diner in the morning on my way in and ask Reva
to pull out a calendar and figure out how many times they went in the last two
months.”

“That’d
be great. While you’re there, ask her if she knows anyone else that Saralyn
might have cached with or if Saralyn ever went alone.”  Tate hesitated a
moment, then cleared his throat. “I also talked to a friend in the Bureau and
she’s going to do some research on her end for us. Should hear back from her in
a day or two.”

“That’s
great news. We can use all the help we can get with this case.”

Take
sighed his relief. At least Martin didn’t pelt him with questions about Emma.
He wasn’t sure he was ready to answer them.

CHAPTER 19

By
eight thirty the following morning, Martin and Tate had shared a pot of coffee
and a bag of cinnamon rolls from the diner. After logging into the Babcocks’
geocaching account and scanning the finds that Mr. Babcock had logged, they
found three entries from the lake in the last two months.

 “We
need Parker’s log in and password so that we can compare the sites that the Babcocks
went to with those that Saralyn and Reva went to,” Martin said.

            “Yeah
I know,” Tate replied. “I already called our  IT guy to see if he could somehow
back into that information and I’ve got a call out to the geocaching website
owner asking that they provide us with that as well. Pretty sure they’re going
to try and put me off, based on their privacy statement. If they do, I’ll get a
warrant.”

Martin
drained the last of his coffee. “Let me know when you hear back from them. Judge
Walker owes me a favor and if we need a warrant, I’ll call him for it. I’ve
been thinking about your theory that there’s a leak in the department. I went
back over the Parker file and even though the murder happened in town, I did
have a responder show up at the scene for back-up. Wanna guess who it was?”

“I
was pretty busy that night, and I haven’t had time to check the sign in from
the scene but if I were guessing, I’d have to say Chad Green.”

“Well,
you’re almost right. It was Pete Green. Seems Chad’s daddy might be the leak. He’s
the only officer that was at both scenes and since his wife died last year, he’s
a regular at the diner.”

Slamming
his hand against his desk, Tate swore, “Son of a bitch. If he’s feeding details
to the public, I will make his life a living hell.”

“Now
Tate, you know you can’t just walk up to a man and accuse him of something like
that. He’d never admit to it. He’s got over twenty years on the County force
and he’s well-liked and respected around town.” Martin grinned, “I do have a
plan though, want to hear it?”  When Tate nodded, Martin continued, “I just
reassigned Pete to a new partner. Told him I need an experienced officer with
one of the newer recruits. Starting today he’s riding with Amy Moorehouse, but
what he doesn’t know is that Amy is on loan from the State Capitol Division of Internal
Affairs.”

Tate
laughed, “You are one sneaky SOB, Martin.”

“I
can’t have someone doing that kind of crap on the team. If he’s the leak then
Amy will find out. She’s got plans to stick with him like syrup on a pancake. I’ll
keep you posted on what she reports.” Martin grabbed his hat and left.  

The
rest of the day, Tate jumped every time the phone rang. He told himself he
hoped that it would be the lab or the geocaching web owner returning his call,
but he really hoped that it would be Emma. He tried to convince himself that it
was information on the case that he needed, but Tate was smart enough to realize
that he just wanted to hear her voice. He reached for the phone, then stopped.
Don’t
do it, Echo.
Picking up that phone is only going to make you look like a
love sick ass. One call and you already forgot to leave the past alone like you
promised yourself you would.

Tate
glanced at the clock. Six p.m. He slid into his jacket and grabbed his cap to
leave when his cell phone rang.

“Tate,
it’s Emma. I’m at the Pine Ridge airport. How long will it take you to get here
and pick me up?”

Stunned
Tate stuttered, “Em, you know I’ll come and get you, hell I’d drive to Virginia
to get you if that’s what you want, but why are you here? Why are you in Pine
Ridge?”

Laughing
nervously Emma said, “I’m on a three week leave from the Bureau and I thought
about how long it had been since I’ve seen you…seen your parents.”  She paused,
“Just come get me, okay?”

Pulling
the door closed, Tate headed to the parking lot as they talked. “I’m on my way.
But if you’re here because of the murders, then you can just turn around and
take your pretty little ass back to Virginia.”

This
time Emma laughed a full throaty laugh that had Tate smiling, imagining her
with her head tilted back her long hair flowing down her back.

“Just
come get me. I have a few weeks off and I wanted to see you. It’s been over a
year, you know. I don’t know if I still have a pretty little tail or not so get
out here and pick me up. We can sort out the rest.”